Have you or your kids ever wondered how storms form? Here is a fun experiment you can try at home! This will teach you how air rises and falls as well as density.
Here is what you need:
- Food coloring (preferably red & blue)
- Very warm water
- Ice tray
- A large bowl (clear is best)
The first step is to fill your ice tray with water. Add a little blue food coloring to each slot and put it in the freezer. This will make blue ice cubes.
Next have an adult add some very warm water into a bowl. This warm water will act as our atmosphere on a hot summer day. All that warmer water wants to rise to the top because hot water/air is less dense than colder water/air/.
Grab a few ice cubes out of the freezer and drop them in the warm water. You may notice right away the blue water melting from the ice cube will sink. this is that dense water at work. The air works the same way!
Add a bit of red food coloring to the opposite side and watch it rise to the top.
These are the same principles at play in our air. When it heats up it rises and cools creating showers and storms. Or when a cold front comes in that can act as a wedge to lift storms up.
Next time you see a thunderstorm, know that it took hot air to make it rise and there is now colder air falling out of it.
